A pregnant woman, Mrs. Mmesoma
Odili, from Umuosiegbo village, Umunya in Oyi local government area of Anambra
State, is in a devastating mood following the loss of her pregnancy during
eight days of detention at the Zone 13 Police Headquarters, Ukpo, Anambra
State.
It was gathered that the police
had to arrest Mmesoma when they could not lay hands on her husband over a land
dispute in the area.
An indigene of the community,
Mr. Jude Ikeanyionwu, who said the dispute has torn the area apart, called on
the state governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, and other stakeholders in the
state, to intervene in the worrisome situation before it leads to the loss of
more lives.
Ikeanyionwu said: “Mmesoma’s
husband is a member of the community’s vigilante group and one of those opposed
to the illegal attempt to sell our communal land by some of our elders.
“When the men of Zone 13 Police
came to arrest those who do not want our land to be sold since we had shared it
among the various families and they could not find Mmesoma’s husband, they
arrested his pregnant wife.
“For eight days she was in
detention and it was during this period that she had a miscarriage and lost her
three months pregnancy. The police had to let her go when she was almost dying
in detention.
“The situation in our kindred
now is that those who want to sell our land by force have been harassing us
with police from Abuja, such that all the men in the village no longer sleep in
their houses for fear of arrest.
“We have no other land, which
was why a decision was taken to share the large expanse with the various
families, which has been done. It is, therefore, surprising that my uncle, who
was chairman of the kindred, insisted on selling the land when we and our
children have no other land to lay hands on.”
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